Cold Weather Stuff

I had a new package heat pump installed last spring. For anyone that doesn't know why the word "package" is in front of heat pump, that simply means the whole thing sits outside, and the only thing in the house is the duct work and the thermostat. It was a simpler installation since I'd had a package air conditioner and an indoor electric furnace combination.

It stopped working one Wednesday afternoon. There wasn't even a digital read-out on the thermostat, so I wasn't getting power some how. I opened the breaker box and flipped the furnace breakers off and on to see if that was it, but nothing happened. I called the company that had installed it but the best they could do was some time the next week. It was supposed to drop into the low 20's that night. This is a total electric home, so I turned on a small ceramic heater and the oven on the range for a while, then decided to drag in a kerosene heater.

When we moved in here in the spring of '04 I realized we were a bit remote, and there was only one power source coming through the area. A good ice storm, or high winds can take out our power for two or three days or more so I bought a couple of kerosene heaters. I figured one in each end of the house would keep the temperature above the freezing mark, but little did I know. I'd also bought two five gallon containers and filled them with kerosene, and they've been sitting here unused for the last three years. I filled the one heater, set it mid house and fired it up. It seemed to be putting out a lot of heat so I just turned it to about three fourths on the control. This was eleven o'clock at night. When I got up at six the next morning it was still cooking away and the temperature was about 85º in the kitchen and dining area, and over 75º at the farthest ends of the house. I shut it off for a while and refilled it, then fired it back up a couple of hours later. Those things are serious heaters, and I was duly impressed.

And now for the rest of the story. About the middle of the next day I had called another service company to see if I could get the heat pump back up and running, and they scheduled me for the next afternoon. Just after I hung up from talking to them I was struck with one of those "duh" realizations. There are two sets of breakers. The ones that had controlled the original electric furnace, and the ones that had controlled the package air conditioner. I opened the breaker box and flipped the AC breakers off and on, and the whole system was back up and running. Two more phone calls to the two service companies to admit my ignorance and I was back in business.

All is not lost though. It made me realize just how effective those kerosene heaters can be, and if one can heat our home during a power outage, I can set the second one in my daughters place adjacent to us to keep them comfy during such an outage. I just have to make sure I have enough kerosene on hand because if it's a wide outage the service stations will not be able to pump more.